New member with an older X160

[jackmonoblues]

Hello folks !

I'm a new member from France, and I'm happy to belong to your community since a few days. I'm 56. I've been playing South Side Chicago Blues for years, and I've been using an X160 (an older one, from 1989) for 10 years. I also have an acoustic parlor type Regal guitar, but the X160 is my old time used to be !

Are old these older X160 with a bigsby or are there other "string fixations" (I don't know the american word) ?
Would any member who has one X160 give some informations about this guitar I love, but which is extremely rare in France ?
Are the pick ups standard humbuckers in the production of Guild, or specific ones ? As the archtop is in laminated, what is the difference on sound with plain wood other models ? and so on...

I'm a beginner about Guild guitars, and would say many thanks to every body, who would give me more knowledge about my guitar...

Jack Mono Blues

 

[danerectal]

are there other "string fixations" (I don't know the american word) ?

I believe the word you require is tailpiece. I can't answer questions regarding specifications of the X-160, but there are plenty of archtop owners and, of course, Hans.

 

[cc_mac]

Welcome Jack,

You've come to the right place. I am new around here too and these are some nice folks.

There was a recent discussionhttp://www.letstalkguild.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=12518 about the X-160 you have and there's a picture of one form 1989 with a standard Guild harp tailpiece aka string affixation

Your guitar has a laminated maple top as well as back and sides. That's typical of most Guild archtops in the X-series. There are some such as the X-500 and X-700 that have spruce tops which are also laminated. Some of the others know a lot more about that stuff and can add more detail.

Post pics of you guitar si vous plait.

On a side note I'll be seeing the French band Morglbl next week and attending a guitar clinic with Christophe Godin. Should be cool. They seem like fun and talented folks.

 

[Dr. Spivey]

Greetings Jack. I too am a fan of Chicago blues. Can't help with your question, but welcome to LTG.

 

[jackmonoblues]

Welcome Jack...

Hello Chris

Thanks for these informations, particurly the URL you gave.
Now I know more about my X160's story...
You say that laminated top and back is something common in archtop Guilds... Is that a design choice, in order to give this nervous and powerfull response, or only an economic choice ?
And what about the pickups ?

I'll post images as soon I get some

 

[Walter Broes]

Hey Jack,
for electric playing at the kind of volumes required with a drummer who plays a backbeat on a snare, you're better off with a laminated archtop.

Solid wood archtops are harder to amplify without feedback, and tend to work better in acoustic or Jazz settings.

Welcome to the forum!

 

[jackmonoblues]

Hey Jack,
for electric playing at the kind of volumes required with a drummer who plays a backbeat on a snare, you're better off with a laminated archtop.

Solid wood archtops are harder to amplify without feedback, and tend to work better in acoustic or Jazz settings.

Welcome to the forum!

Hello WB.

Thanks for this detail. I understand what you mean. I found that the laminated gives a more nervous response and attack when powerfull playing. I also noticed that, when high level playing or close to the amp, my guitar's box got in wholy vibration, causing a tremendous feed back on the middle-low D frequency. I don't think its a specific fault from this guitar, but something predictible with every archtop...

 

[cc_mac]

Welcome Jack...

Hello Chris

Thanks for these informations, particurly the URL you gave.
Now I know more about my X160's story...
You say that laminated top and back is something common in archtop Guilds... Is that a design choice, in order to give this nervous and powerfull response, or only an economic choice ?
And what about the pickups ?

I'll post images as soon I get some

Hi,

I might be talking out of school so someone feel free to chime in and correct me.

Laminates were used for several reasons including
1) lower cost for materials and manufacturing
2) increased sonic stability for a guitar that was designed to be amplified and had pickups mounted to the top of the guitar - less feedback!
This is the case for the X-series Guild Archtops. I believe all the A series are carved and have "floating pick-ups" mounted to the pickguard. Spruce laminates were not uncommon in the product line including the X-175 Manhattan. over the last 25 years or so the most of the line was laminated maple except the X-500, X-700, and maybe X-350. The use of laminated maple for archtop and semi-hollowbody guitars is common to many major manufactures and doesn't mean they are low quality at all.

If the pickups in your X-161 are original they would be Guild manufactured HB1 pickups and are well thought of.

Can't wait to see your pics.

 

[krysh]

welcome jack, and nothing to add so far

 

[jackmonoblues]

Welcome Jack...

Hi,

I might be talking out of school so someone feel free to chime in and correct me.

Laminates were used for several reasons including
1) lower cost for materials and manufacturing
2) increased sonic stability for a guitar that was designed to be amplified and had pickups mounted to the top of the guitar - less feedback!
This is the case for the X-series Guild Archtops. I believe all the A series are carved and have "floating pick-ups" mounted to the pickguard. Spruce laminates were not uncommon in the product line including the X-175 Manhattan. over the last 25 years or so the most of the line was laminated maple except the X-500, X-700, and maybe X-350. The use of laminated maple for archtop and semi-hollowbody guitars is common to many major manufactures and doesn't mean they are low quality at all.

If the pickups in your X-161 are original they would be Guild manufactured HB1 pickups and are well thought of.

Can't wait to see your pics.

-----

Hello Chris and everybody

Here is my X-160 from 1989, I should say my X-161T after your informations...
I bought it $850 to a friend who loved pretty good guitars (He also has a Chet Atkins Gretsch) but was high and dry at that time... I don't know what this price signifies as seen from the USA, but in France, Guild guitars are very rare, and it was something near of a friendly deal.

I use to play early Chicago Blues on it, pluged on the 15W all tubes Velocette you can see on the pic. It is quite enough in most bars and clubs when I use to play with my group (Jack Mono Blues). I also use a 50W transistor amp I designed and made with special circuits with a progressive and warm overdrive like it should be for such a music. When I use effects (boosters or toned overdrives) I only use germanium amplification, after plans I also designed.

Little sacrilege, I dared modify the tone capacitors on treble mike, changing the nominal value for a 33nF MKT tropical fish. I also soldered little capacitors (1nF, MKT tropical fish) between cursor and hot point off the Volume potentiometers, so it does not attenuate trebles when turning the volume downway.

Would be happy to keep on sharing with the community about this guitar, electronics and everything abaout Guild stuffs.

Jack Mono Blues

 

[cc_mac]

Welcome Jack...

-----

Hello Chris and every body

Here is my X-160 from 1989, I should say my X-161T after your informations...
I bought it to $8500 a friend who loved pretty good guitars (He has also a Chet Atkins Gretsch) but was high and dry at that time... I don't know what this price signifies as seen from the USA, but in France, Guild guitars are very rare, and it was something near of a friendly deal.


Would be happy to keep on sharing with the community about this guitar, electronics and everything abaout Guild stuffs.

Jack Mono Blues


Well... I'm in a jam with the pics, can't make read the URL I wrote... Excuse me, I'll search for another solution...
Can't we read pics from flickr?

Jack,

That's a lovely instrument. If you meant $850 then a that's a good deal. If you really paid $8500 US then you need to find some new friends A tone cap swap seems pretty benign so don't sweat it, man. Now you need to put some video of your band playing on youtube! Sounds pretty interesting.

As for image posting I fixed that for you. What was happening was you were doing a hot link to an image but using the "page address " from flicker instead of the image address. Here's what we were missing.

 

[Guildmark]

Sweet axe, Monsieur Blues!

Bienvenu.

 

[jackmonoblues]

Hello Chris and everybody

Thank you for your help on reading pics from flickr...
Well, I was off the wall when translating from Francs to Euros to Dollars how much I earned my guitar . It was exactly $850, as you thought, and not 8500 ! At that time, near 1995, I noticed only one X161T sold as new in France, and the price was $2500. $850 was realy a friendly deal !

Writing "sacrilege" about modifying the tone caps was a kind of joke, but I know owners of vintage guitars are often getting mad when you talk them about some customization... I must say I have that curious habit, changing everything around me. Last spring, when the harp player of our group bought a brand new De Luxe Amp from the Fender Custom Shop (It was worth about 1 1/2 month of his worker's pay), he said to me "Well bud Now you must not change anything in that amp !!!"

Thanks for your care
Jack Mono Blues

The group's my space is :
(I apologize for french accent, I hope music his better than the voice)
http://www.myspace.com/jackmonoblues

 

[GAD]

That sir, is a beautiful instrument.

If it's got HB1s in it, I bet it sounds magnificent!

GAD